KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — National shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei appears to be on the right path to claim his first Open tournament title after serving an eight-month ban over a doping violation. 

The former world number one showed that he had not lost any of his touches despite an eight-month absence from competition by beating Rajiv Ouseph of England in the quarter-finals of the US Open Grand Prix Gold held at the Suffolk County Community College, Brentwood, United States. 

The 33-year-old player took 32 minutes to beat world number 20 21-9 and 21-14 to set up a battle against B. Sai Praneeth of India who defeated Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long 21-8 and 21-14 win.

Top seed Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan, who is also world number seven, stayed in contention for his first title this season by beating Japan’s Takuma Ueda 21-11 and 21-19 to set up a semi-final match against Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus. 

Vittinghus disposed off Kenta Nishimoto of Japan with a 21-10 and 21-16 win. — Bernama